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You need to model the 2-12 response period as maintenance of working memory.
Additionally, you might want to modulate the maintenance period by load.

You are right that the signal overlaps, but the neural activity doesn't; so,
the events should be separable. Just make sure you model everything.

If you are still concerned, you could create 3 separate events for the 2
second delay periods and ignore them.

Best Regards, Donald McLaren
=================
D.G. McLaren, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, GRECC, Bedford VA
Research Fellow, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and
Harvard Medical School
Office: (773) 406-2464
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On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 9:07 AM, Andres Roman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have been following the discussion about jittered trial design and had a
> couple of questions related to my design. I am analyzing data from 4 groups
> of a delayed response task. The task consist of two runs (32 trials by run)
> with 6 different loads of stimulus. The trials start with a fixed 4 sec
> period were the stimulus is shown (series of letters) followed by a
> variable
> delay of 2 to 12 seconds, following this there is a fixed period of 1.5
> secs
> were the subject is supposed to match and answer according to to the series
> of letters that were shown at the start of the trial, finishing the trial
> with an ITI of variable duration (3-5) seconds. I am able to to model both
> the start of the trial quite well and the response section of 1.5 sec. I am
> using a duration of 1 second and a parametric modulator that uses the load
> effect for the 4 sec section. In the case of the response section I used a
> duration of 1.5 (length of the whole answer period) and the same parametric
> modulator used before (load). My problem is that I am afraid that since the
> jittered minimum interval is 2 secs the signal in those trials overlaps
> between each other. Is there a way to model this variable jitter interval
> in
> a way that could maximize my signal? A proposed contrast to model the
> jitter
> interval? Or exclude the jittered trials that have a value of less than 4
> seconds?
>
> Thank you very much for any ideas to deal with this.
> --
> Andres Roman-Urrestarazu
>